Not So Perfect
by Kolbka
Summary: Korra discovers an interesting fact about her firebending teammate.


I just had to get it out of my head. And a good way to practice English as well xD and excuse my mistakes. I won't explain myself with being Polish xD

Yeah, if you notice any major, minor, or any mistakes - I'm open to suggestions ;)

**Summary:** Korra discovers an interesting fact about her firebending teammate.

* * *

It was nearly midnight. Mako and Korra were sitting in the brothers' apartment, waiting for Bolin to come back.

"How long _exactly_ does it take your brother to be back home?" grunted Korra, annoyed at Bolin's prolongation. "He should be here one hour ago!" she pouted and threw her hands in the air. She shifted, so now she laid on the sofa on her stomach, her arms over the edges of it.

"Don't tell me you're never late" Mako rolled his eyes. "He will be back soon. When he goes out, Bolin is always late in the evenings." The girl huffed and said nothing. Although Mako was calm, she could hear a hint of worry in his voice. Yes, his brother was always late, and this situation probably wasn't the first one, yet the boy with the red scarf still cared about his brother.

"I _was _being late. But now, when the tournament is at hand, we have to do our best! Even if that means training at eleven at night. "

"Well, it's Bolin's loss. We did in fact train."

"Whatever. He should've trained with us."

"What does it matter for you anyway? Are you…" Mako didn't have a chance to finish his sentence, because the avatar cut in, almost screaming.

"No! Why would you even… I mean… Um… " Korra protested and sighed, regaining her composure "Look. I like Bolin as a friend, okay?" she cleared, feeling… werid, that Mako seemed annoyed by the thought of her _liking _the earthbender.

Mako frowned. An awkward silence hung in the air, fortunately interrupted by a quiet tapping on one of the windows.

"I didn't know Bolin liked to _climb_ to the apartment" Korra joked, not moving from her place.

A small smile appeared on the firebender's face, but fainted after less than a second. The boy opened the window and both of them saw a Ring-Tailed Lemur sitting on the windowsill. It cocked his head and let out a characteristic Lemur sound. The animal was holding a piece of paper in one of its paws.

"It's from Tenzin" Korra didn't move from her comfortable place, but was hundred percent sure the letter was from her mentor.

"Couldn't he just call? He know our number…"

"It's Tenzin" the girl said, like it was obvious. "He's a tradition guy."

"Right." Mako muttered and took the paper from the animal, which then flew away. "Seems like he doesn't expect an answer."

The avatar shook her head lazily. "He never does. It's always kind of an order."

"Alright, here. Read it." The firebender passed the letter to Korra.

"Could you read it for me? I don't have the strength to even hold it", said the girl dramatically.

"It's your letter. You read." Mako protested.

"Oh come on, don't make me get up."

"I don't know what's your problem. You've been up all day." His gaze was now set on everything but Korra.

"_Exactly_." She grunted, "What's the big deal, Mako?"

"Just… Take it, okay? I'm not going to read somebody's letters." The firebender put a hand on his hip, the other holding the letter tightly.

It was now time for Korra to frown. It took a while until she realized what was going on.

"Wait… You can't read?"

Mako choked.

"What makes you think that?", he asked, still not looking in her direction.

Korra stood up and pouted.

"Okay, I can't. I _can't_ read this." Mako admitted, his voice loud, pretentious and crumbling. "It would take forever." he mumbled with a hurt expression on his face. He finally managed to look at Korra.

The pout on the girl's face disappeared, and was replaced by a saddened one.

"That's… Okay, I guess. You could have told me, you know." She approached him and put an arm on his shoulder. "There's nothing wrong with that"

"I never had the chance to even learn. With Bolin and me to feed, to protect…I was too busy, and didn't have any money, let alone a chance to pay for lessons."

"I understand… You're pretty intelligent, though. With so little practice…" Korra smiled supportively. She remembered when he figured out this "Revelation" map puzzle and a number of other riddles. "Come on, give it to me. I'll see what Tenzin had written."

After scanning the text quickly, she spoke again.

"He made a lecture about appearing early to practice, and that then my mind is fresh and most open for new things. Nothing important. So, yeah, I'll have to leave early tomorrow."

Mako nodded with a serious look on his face,his hands crossed on his chest, and then sighed. Korra thought for a minute.

"You know what? We could practice. I maybe could teach you to read a bit faster. It never hurts, right?", she suggested and punched his arm 'lightly'.

"You… You want to teach me how to read?" a disbelieving look crawled on Mako's face, followed by a similar tone.

"Why not?" Korra shrugged "We're still waiting for Bolin to give him a lesson, anyway. Why not waste this time doing something practical?" She repeated.

They spent the rest of their evening reading the letter over and over again, laughing at each other's randomly thrown jokes. This was one of the rare times they were comfortable around one another, and so they almost forgot about all their worries, Bolin and the closeness that would normally be unsettling for both of them.

It was one and a half hours later that Bolin came back and saw his teammates asleep on the couch, one pillow away from each other, with one hand holding a letter between them, so that their hand were touching, the avatar and the firebender breathing peacefully. He smiled to himself and decided to leave them like that – Why waste an opportunity to see their reactions in the morning?

Considering he wakes up earlier, of course.

* * *

Short, I know. But there will be more... I think...? I will still post awful grammar mistake Makorra stories, mwahahahaha!

Oh, and by the way - I know what you might think. A 17-19 year old boy and can't read? I just thought he didn't have time for this, as I said. He could read something, of course, but it's really hard to read one sentence. Um, yeah, my story! xD


End file.
